Apparatus for distilling oil shales and the like



Amm 22, 1924., n 1,491,290

A i D. J. L. DAVIS ET AL 'APPARATUS FOR DISTILLING OIL SHALES AND THE LIKE Filed sept. 2o, 1922 s sheets-sheet 1 D .5H/qlk- B/N i I I I I I y GENE/M7012 I ,f3

3- I I I I v I I I L I I l To Can/neuss #9fwww Apri 22, 1924.

D. J. L. DAVIS ET Al.

APPARATUS FOR DISTILLING OIL SHALES. AND THE LIKE Stimmung April 22, 1.924. l 1,221,220

D. J. L. DAVIS ET AL APPARATUS FOR DISTILLING OIL SHALES AND THE LIKE Filed Sept. 20, 1922 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Patented Apr. 22, 1924.

UNITED STATES PATENT, OFFICE.

DAVID J'. L. DAVIS AND GEORGE W. WALLACE, 0F NEW YORK, N-. Y., ASSIGNORS TO S. E. COMPANY, A CORPORATION F DELAWARE.

APPARATUS EUR DISTILLING OIL SHALES AND TYHE LIKE. v

Application iled September 20, 1922. Serial-No. 589,354.

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that we, DAVID J. L. DAVIS and Grouse W. WALLACE, citizens of the United States, residing at New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented new and ,useful Improvements in Apparatus for Distilling Oil Shales and the like, of which the following is a specification.

t Our invention relates to the distillation of oil-shales and the like, by which term We mean to include all solid mineral materials which contain hydrocarbons and which yield oils when subjected to heat, either by destructive distillation or by simple distillation. Y

We have recently adopted and put into practice on a commercial scale the process covered by application Serial No. 524,515,

filed Dec. 22, 1921, Dundas and Howes, and allowed March 28, 1923, which is known as the internal combustion process. In the practice of this process, as it is described in said application, a vertical chamber or retort is charged with shale, which is ignited -at the top, the retort being then closed. A

current of regulated and modified air is then passed downwardly through the charge, whereby a zone of combustion is caused to progress gradually downward through the charge, the oil and other products being drawn off at the bottom of the chamber.

The charge of spent shale has then to be removed and the chamber refilled. In actual practice, the chamber is 8 ft. in diameten in oneinstance and 11 ft. in another. It

was at first proposed to provide the chamber with a lateral door on its side wall near the bottom, as has been the usual custom with externally heated retorts, which necessitates the raking out of the charge by manual labor. For a chamber of 20 tons capacity, We found that the labor of three men for eight hours would be required. Manifestly this meant a considerable expense and a material loss of time during which the plant was not operative, and of heat, since naturally the chamber would cool oii' during that time. We decided that the only practical. way to operate the Dundas and Howes process on a commercial scale, which requires chambers capable of containing charges of 20 tons or more, would require the chamber to be equipped with means whereby the charge of spent shale could be dumped as a be remembered that this process requires the chamber to be practically hermetically closed both at top and bottom during the operation. An obvious way was to provide the bottom with a hinged door which could be dropped whole and without manual labor. It must l when the chamber was to be emptied. But

with the dimensions We were working with, where the chamber was 8 feet and more in diameter, such a door was obviously impracticable on account of its excessive weight. Furthermore provision has to be made for drawing off the condensed and un-` condensed products from the bottom of vthe chan'iber dui-ing the operation. We were therefore led to devise the form of door or closure which constitutes the present invention, which consists of a sliding bottom for the chamber, preferably carried by wheels running on tracks, and comprising -an oil receptacle with a preferably inclined plane bottom and a lateral outlet in its wall at its deepest point, and a grate covering said receptacle and adapted to support the charge and to withstand the. heat of combustion when the downwardly traveling zone reaches the bottom of the chamber. The grate is also `inclined to facilitate drawing it away from under the charge, or else the tracks on which the bottom runs are inclined, and the lateral outlet from the oil receptacle is.t

adapted to enter and fit in a pipe end, or the like, when the bottom is in place. The

annular edge of the grate is made to litv tightly under the annular edge of the chamber so as to make a substantially air-tight fit. Power means is employed to withdraw the bottom when it is desired to dump the charge and to return it when the chamber is ready to receive a fresh charge. The lining of the chamber preferably tapers upwardly to facilitate the discharge'of its contents.

lVe ha've illustrated an apparatus embodying our invention in the accompanying three sheets of drawing, in which,

F ig. l is a side elevation of a generator plant constructed according to the present invention;

f Fig. 2 is a horizontal plan section taken on the line 2 2 of Fig. l;

Fig. 3 is a central vertical section through the lower part of the generator, and

Fig. 4 represents a modified arrangement and construction of the grate bottom and its actuating means.

l In these views, 1 is the shell of the gen.-

` erator and 2 the feeding hopper or shale bi'n,

supported on columns 3, carried by horizontal beams 4of which one 4 is at a higher level than the others to leave space for the sliding bottom or door, indicated as a Whole at 5. This door comprises an inclined grate 6, carried on the Walls of a receptacle 7, constituting the. closed bottom of the shell and provided with wheels 8, running on tracks 9. The walll and lining of the shell are so shaped at the bottom that the grate and bot; tom receptacle l7 make a tight it therewitll'f when in normal position. The front Wall of the receptacle 7 has a tubular connection 10, which fits into the outlet pipe 11 for the condensed oils. The grate and bottom refceptacle are moved by a threaded screw 12,

secured thereto at 13 and engaged by a worm-wheel nut 14, driven by any suitable power means 15.

The operation will be evident. At the completion of the treatment of a charge, the nut 14 is rotated, whereby the bottom and grate are run out from under the charge, which can be received in the car 16, ruiming on rails 17 beneath the generator.

It will beobvious that other forms of power means may be'employed for moving the grate and bottom, and also that, instead of the grate itself being inclined, it Vmay be horizontal while the track on which it moves is inclined.

In Fig. 4, this modification is shown, whereby Othe same result is obtained as by the inclination of the grate of Figs. l to 3, viz, the diminution of the resistance to its movement by the friction caused by the column of spent shale. In this case, the grate itself and the bottom of the receptacle 7 are horizontal, but the tracks 19, or that portion of `them lying under the chamber, are

inclined. In this way the surface of the grate which lies in contact with and supports the charge, moves downwardly at the same time as it moves laterally, so that, as soon as the grate commences to move, it leaves the plane containing ,the bottom of the charge, thus relieving the friction of the charge on the grate. The same effect is,

however, obtained in a simpler manner by making the grate surface inclined and the tracks horizontal, as first described. Fig. 4 also shows, by Way of example, a dii'erent means for moving the grate and bottom, the same consisting in constructing the Wheels thereof as pinions 18 and the tracks as racks 19, a motor 2O being carried on the bottom to drive one of the pinion shafts.

Having thus described our invention, what we claimis:

1. Apparatus for Aextracting oil from shale, by internal combustion, comprising an upright closed chamber, a removable bottom closure for said chamber consisting of ai'lfoil receptacle having a lateral outlet and a grate covering said receptacle, and means to move said bottom closure laterally away from the chamber to discharge the contents of the latter, the edge of the closure being adapted to make a tight fit against the bottom of the Wall of the chamber.

` 2. In the apparatus of claim l, tracks on which the bottom closure is moved, the upper surface of the grate lying in a plane which makes such an angle with the plane of the tracks that the initial lateral movement of the rate 'removes it from its plane of contact wlth the charge.

3. In the apparatus of claim 1, wheels on the bottom closure, tracks for said Wheels, vand power means to move said closure on said tracks.

4. In the apparatus of claim 1, the oil receptacle having an inclined bottom leading to said outlet and the latter being adapted and arranged to enter a iiXed pipe when the bottom closure is in normal position under the chamber. v

5. In the apparatus of claim 1, the grate being inclined to the horizontal, so that every point of the grate surface leaves the plane of contact with the charge as soon as the lateral movementl of the grate from beneaththe chamber commences.

In testimony whereof we have hereuntol set our hands. 

